Episode 32: Lizzie Borden Took An Axe; Favorite Boston Athletes; Scranton PA Home of The Office; Collecting Baseball Cards(8-12-2021)

Episode 32 starts with one of the most infamous murder cases in American history.  Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother 40 whacks. Or did she?  Although acquitted for the murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River in 1892 the court of public opinion was far different.  Lizzie Borden's story is fascinating and goes far beyond the double-murder trial.
The epic 2019 Road Trip continues with a stop at the home of The Office Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Although it's known by so many as the backdrop for the popular TV show there is more to see there than just Dunder Mifflin sites. 
We go Back In the Day to the fun that was had collecting baseball cards.  It was a great hobby in the 1980's and 1990's filled with terrible sticks of gum and the potential of getting a highly rated rookie card.
The newest Top 5 is centered around my favorite Boston athletes of my lifetime. My sports fandom began in 1985 and so my favorites begin there.  Surely everybody will agree with my list!
There is also a new This Week In History and Time Capsule featuring the Manson Family Murders.
Be sure to watch for my livestreams called Without A Map Friday's at 8pm on Instagram which serve as a sort of postgame show for the podcast. Find them on IGTV and YouTube after they've finished.

Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)

• Purchase Iconic Hotels and Motels of Cape Cod
• Wear Your Wish
• DJ Williams Music
• In My Footsteps: Scranton, Pennsylvania
• Visit NEPA.org
• Christopher Setterlund's YouTube Channel
• In My Footsteps Podcast Blog
• Christopher Setterlund.com

Listen to Episode 31 here.

Transcript

Intro

Hello world. Welcome to Episode 32 of the in my footsteps podcast. I'm your host Christopher Setterlund. Coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This week is a packed episode, we're going to start with the dark side, one of the most infamous murders in American history. That being the Lizzie Borden murders, which took place in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892. We're going to continue looking at my 2019 epic 2100 Mile Road Trip as I go to the home of the office Scranton, Pennsylvania. We go back in the day as I talked about what it was like to collect baseball cards back when it used to be a really fun hobby. Not so much anymore. I share my top five favorite Boston athletes of my sports lifetime. There's a new this week in history and time capsule, which features the horrific Charles Manson Family murders. And so much more coming up right now on episode 32 of the in my footsteps podcast. welcoming everybody. Thank you all so much for tuning in for checking out my podcast, my passion project, New England travel, lifestyle, nostalgia, history, all that good stuff rolled up into one nice 45, 50, 55 minute package. If you're down on Cape Cod in the summer, now it's mid-August, hopefully you're able to get around and see things and visit places we are packed more than normal. And unfortunately, as the numbers go up, the number of people that are you know, less than great are down here as well. For the most part the people we get that visit the cape are great and they're respectful and they're polite. But then you get some that are just jerks. And I've noticed that so I'm hoping that you that come down, don't think all of us are like that or think all the tourists are like that. I want to thank everyone that has tuned in to my live streams without a map. Those are Fridays at 8pm. On Instagram, I do them every week. Basically, it's almost like an unofficial podcast where I talk about these episodes, I dive a little deeper into some of those topics. But then it usually goes off the rails in a fun way where a lot of random stuff gets talked about which I enjoy. That's what makes it fun. wanted to give a shout-out to my Uncle Bob, a couple of episodes ago, you might have remembered that I mentioned that he was not doing too well. He had been in ICU and he was really sick. Well as an update. He's now in a rehab facility and he's getting better. So if he listens to this, I wanted to give him a shout. I'm sure he's going to be back to his old self in no time. But we were definitely scared for a bit there. Thank you to everyone who has been listening to the podcast. I know I say it all the time. But I really do appreciate it. And it comes through where July was my top month for downloads. It had my most downloaded episode, in its first week which was episode 30, the celebration of life of my old friend Matt Medeiros. And it also had my top downloads for one week. Also overall for the podcast. It's exciting because here I am, the first week of November will be a year that I've been doing this podcast, and for the numbers to be going up and up. Makes me feel like this has some staying power. So I always want to make sure that I thank those of you who listen and interact because without you it's just me talking into a microphone to nobody. So thank you so much. I always try to put together the best episodes I can as far as things that will interest you. And so we're going to do it again here with episode 32. I've been waiting a while to talk about the Lizzie Borden murders. But I wanted to wait until it was that month so it matched up. And that's going to be where we start off with one of the most infamous murders ever in this country. The Lizzie Borden murders are so famous and if you don't know them, well I'm going to go over them right now. So let's take a trip back to August of 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts and this is a story of the Lizzie Borden murders on episode 32 of the in my footsteps podcast.

Lizzie Borden

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks when she saw what she had done. She gave her father 41 Her name is infamous. Despite actually being acquitted of the crime she was accused of that creepy rhyme has become synonymous with the name Lizzie Borden. The crimes that took place in Fall River in 1892 are ghastly and very well known. But this is the story of Lizzie Borden. Her life the murders the trial the aftermath Lizbeth Andrew Borden was born in Fall River on July 19 1862, Andrew and Sarah Borden, and the family was wealthy due to Andrew's success in manufacturing and real estate. Lizzie had a sister Emma who was nine years older than her. And prior to Lizzie's birth, there was a second daughter that had been born named Alice, but she died at only two years old in 1858 due to hydrocephalus, also known as water on the brain. So Lizzie's birth was seen as a blessing after losing Alice. Lizzie is normal life only lasted a few years. On March 26 1863. Her mother Sarah died of uterine congestion and spinal disease at the young age of 39. This left toddler Lizzie without a mother, but her sister Emma stepped up to be kind of the mother that she didn't have. That was until June 6 1865. When their father Andrew married Abby Durfee Gray, Emma immediately resented Abby becoming a mother figure to Lizzie since Lizzy had no real memories of her actual mother. Emma went away to Wheaton Female Seminary, now known as Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts for a year and a half between 1867 and 68. This left Abby with a chance to bond with Lizzy without Emma there to interfere. Emma returned from college early. Some people think it was because she didn't really have what it took to be in college. Although other people had the idea that she left college early because she was worried about Abby, creating a bond with Lizzie. Once back together Emma and Lizzie their relationship with Abby grew more distant. They refer to her as Mrs. Borden and they had intense resentment that kind of went unchecked because the father Andrew was a workaholic, usually putting in 14-hour days and just saving as much money as he could. Andrew tried to cultivate a family bond among the three moving them to a house at 92 Second Street and Fall River in 1874. Andrew Gordon's greatest accomplishment was the building he erected on South Main Street in 1889. It was a three-storey commercial brick building, which cost $35,000 Then, or roughly about a million dollars now. The building was seen as a symbol of Borden success as well as the growth of Fall River into a respected industrial city. And by 1892 His net worth adjusted to today was more than $7 million. Lizzy and Emma did not like the fact that they lived a middle-class life while Andrew Borden saved what would be today millions of dollars. And they were seen as spinsters of the community because they lived under the same roof is Abby and Andrew into their 30s in town on the outside it seemed like the Borden family was living a charmed life, but behind closed doors, it was a bubbling cauldron of frustration. This all came to a head on August 4 1892, and one of the most infamous crimes in all of American history. Interestingly, the story actually begins two days earlier on August 2, when Andrew and Abby Borden awakened claiming stomach sickness. Abby went to a doctor Seabury Bowen, suggesting that they may have been poisoned although the doctor was skeptical. On the morning of August 3. Lizzie Borden purportedly attempted unsuccessfully to purchase hydrogen cyanide at Dr. Smith's drugstore. And that evening, Lizzie spoke forebodingly, about things potentially happening to her father. She spoke openly of him having enemies and mentioned poisoning specifically and worried someone might do something. August 4 began with Abby, Andrew, and their friend John Morris having breakfast at 7am. Morris left at 845 and Andrew went out to mail some letters while Abby went upstairs to do some cleaning. Before Andrew returned from mailing the letters. Abby was brutally murdered by 19 hatchet blows to the back of her head, and she was left laying beside a bed partially concealed. Andrew then returned and gave a package to their housekeeper Bridget Sullivan, Lizzie told her father that Abby was not home. Bridget went upstairs to her attic room, not seeing Abby's body she passed right by it, and Andrew lay down on the sofa in the sitting room. Shortly thereafter, he was also murdered with 10 Savage hatchet blows to the face. Shortly thereafter, Lizzy called out to Bridget that her father was murdered, while also establishing an alibi of being in the barn while the murders happened. At 11:15am. The police were called dozens of officers descended on the board and home and conducted postmortems on Abby and Andrew. They interviewed Lizzie noting that she had no blood on her, although immediately naming her a suspect. fingerprint technology was around back then, but it was pretty new. And so the police were wary of its accuracy. And a hatchet that was found in the basement of the home was therefore never tested for prints. Lizzie's sister Emma, who had been in New Bedford for the past few weeks returned to Fall River, and upon her return August 7, Emma purportedly witnessed Lizzy burning a blue corduroy dress in a fireplace. Lizzie was formally arrested on August 11, after a closed-door inquest by police about the Borden murders. she pled not guilty and was sent to prison in Taunton until her trial began in New Bedford Superior Court on June 5 1893. The story was immediately a nationwide phenomenon even before the trial began. The fact of a female and the daughter murdering her father was just sensationalized. While on trial, Lizzy seemed very emotionally detached from the gravity of what had happened. Although there was definitely some doubt as to whether Lizzie could have done such a thing. She was seen as a churchgoer and a member of an upper-class family in Fall River. Plus the sheer brutality of the murders led many to believe that a woman was incapable of such atrocities. Lizzie story was filled with inconsistencies and even though her sister Emma staunchly defended her in court. All signs pointed to the fact that it was Lizzie Borden that was going to be convicted of double murder. But in the end, the prosecution could not produce a murder weapon or bloody clothes and even chalked up the attempted purchase of the hydrogen cyanide the day before to just mistaken identity. On June 20 1893, Lizzie Borden was found not guilty, and after that she inherited a sizable chunk of money from his father's estate. And in a not-so-subtle piece of irony, Lizzie and Emma moved into a large house up on the hills in Fall River as they had desired years before. It was a 14-room home at 306 French street bought by Lizzie and named Maplecroft. Even though she was found not guilty in a court of law. It was not the same in the court of public opinion, as Lizzie was shunned by the community and former friends, ridiculed and pranked by kids and took to traveling far away to Boston, New York and Washington DC to live out the lavish lifestyle with the money she inherited without the scrutiny of her past. After a few years, Lizzie started going by Lizbeth and she ended up staying close to her Maplecroft home. She developed a close relationship with actress Nancy O'Neill in 1904. And this relationship led to Emma moving out of the Maplecroft home in 1905. And the two sisters remained estranged for the rest of their lives outside of an appearance in probate court in May 1923. To obtain equal distribution of the Andrew Borden building and Fall River Lizzy remained out of the spotlight. She went in for an operation in 1926 to remove her gallbladder and her health never recovered. She died of pneumonia on June 1 1927 At the age of 66. In her will, she left several sizable charitable donations. And in a weird twist of irony, her estranged sister Emma died a little more than a week later. It's been almost 130 years now since those murders took place. And nobody was ever charged for the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden after Lizzie's acquittal, the home which is now number 2/32 Street is a popular museum and bed and breakfast, and people can get a tour of the home complete with crime scene photos, and you can spend the night there it's purportedly haunted. I went and visited there and got a tour. I'll talk about that more on the live stream coming up on Friday. You can also check out Buzzfeed Unsolved supernatural they spent a night there, Ryan and Shane. Just be wary. There are some graphic photos of the murder scene. But that is the story of Lizzie Borden. The Borden murders the trial the aftermath, even nearly 130 years later, it remains one of the most fascinating and shocking crimes in history. Like I said it sparked countless theories, books, films, and the famous rhyme.

Road Trip: Scranton, PA

The city of Scranton, Pennsylvania is now synonymous with the classic TV show. The Office, however, as much as I want to talk about only the office places that I went to see on my 2100-mile road trip and 2019. There is more to Scranton than just Dunder Mifflin and Michael Scott's Hangouts. It was incorporated in 1866 and is nicknamed the electric city. It's actually the sixth-largest city in Pennsylvania and as part of Lackawanna County. One of the top attractions in Scranton is the Lackawanna coal mine, which is located as a part of more than 200 acres of McDade Park. It's typically open from April through November, and you can get tours where people can take a mind car down 300 feet underground. The mind was actually in use until 1966 when it closed and remained abandoned until 1978. At that point, $2.5 million dollars in federal money was granted to convert the property into a museum. Not far from there is the Steamtown National Historic Site. It's a national park that celebrates railroad transportation, specifically steam engine locomotives. There are historic trains as well as active trains on 40 acres of the former Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad. The national park first opened in 1986, and the grounds are open year-round, and there are trains parked outside so you can see some of the cool old trains. Even if you don't want to go inside to the museum. There's some outside you can get photos of like I did. At the other end of the grounds on the same property is the electric city Trolley Museum. They're not owned by the same group though. The Trolley Museum is run by Lackawanna County and its celebrates the fact that in 1887, Scranton became Pennsylvania's first city with a trolley line. And it earned Scranton the nickname The Electric City. And although there are these historic sites to see, and there are some beautiful natural sites like the Moosic mountains that are surrounding Scranton, obviously most people will know Scranton as the setting of the office. Naturally, that was like the big reason why I went was to go actually see these places that were mentioned on the show. First off only walking distance from the Steamtown National Historic Site is the marketplace at Steamtown. It used to be the Steamtown mall, but it changed his name. It was opened in 1993. As part of a way to revitalize the downtown area. The Office always referred to it as the Steamtown Mall. It was purchased in 2015 and rechristened the marketplace at Steamtown. The big attraction in there is the famous Scranton welcomes you sign that is seen in the first few seconds of the opening of the office. That sign is up on the second floor, and people routinely gather to get their photo taken with it. That's what I did. I took a photo of the sign and then got a photo of me with the sign and I could hear the office music in my head. Interestingly, obviously, there's no actual Dunder Mifflin company in Scranton or anywhere. But close to the marketplace at Steamtown. There is a Mifflin Avenue which I found interesting. The most well-known places from the office that you can visit have to do with food and drink. First is Alfredo's pizza. That's at 1040 South Washington Avenue on the TV show. Alfredo's pizza was the home of the good pizza instead of pizza by Alfredo, which was a hot circle of garbage. And when you go in there to Alfredo's pizza, it's right on the menu. It says Home of the good pizza from the office. There's a sign on the wall that says it. Scranton has got a population of just over 77,000 people. So even though I went to Alfredo's pizza on this road trip near the end of November, it was packed in there. I was lucky though I got a seat at the bar and got a pepperoni pizza. I took a picture of it and posted it on Instagram like so many people do today selfies of their food. You can visit them at Alfredo's cafe.com. And if you go to the site they have fan wear so they lean heavily into the office references. The second place that you've got to check out is Poor Richard's pub. Poor Richards is located inside South Side bowl at 125 Beach Street, and also Poor Richard's pub.net. It's definitely interesting because you walk in and straight ahead of you. There are doors that lead you into a typical bowling alley. But then to the right, there's this bar. And I'm sure a lot of the people that go into that bar are locals that aren't even necessarily office fans. But me being a tourist on the road there to see the office sites I kind of tried to lay low and just look around and get a feel for it. But behind the bar, they actually have their own dandy award. And they sell merchandise in there too. I bought myself and my sister Ashley, these little Poor Richard's pub cups. They were plastic cups, but you could buy those. I wasn't gonna buy an actual dandy while I did for her birthday last year, but not to bring with me to travel on the road. I made sure to buy myself a drink. So I gotta say I had a drink at Poor Richard's pub in Scranton. And I went up to the bartender and I mentioned that I was a big fan of the office. So she brought the dandy over and I took a picture of the dandy next to the cup that I had purchased. All in all, it was super fun. I spent the night in Scranton. So like I said, In last week's episode of the podcast, I left Hudson, New York. I went through Saugerties and I made it to Scranton. By the nightfall and I went to Alfredo's I went to Poor Richard's at night. And then the next day was when I went to the marketplace at Steam town saw the Scranton sign went to the Trolley Museum, the Steamtown National Historic Site with all the trains and the Lackawanna coal mine. And it's highly recommended you could definitely spend more than a day in Scranton, there are all these things to see besides the office. I just happened to see it in the midst of this huge road trip where I tried to enjoy as much as I could, but it was also getting in get out. Coming up next in Episode 33 will be the next stop I took on this road trip and that's the capital city of Harrisburg Pennsylvania. For those of you traveling Scranton, Pennsylvania is about 120 miles northeast of New York City and about 120 miles north of Philadelphia, just as kind of a reference point. Check out visit nepa.org to kind of get a better idea of things to see and do places to eat places to stay in Scranton. If you're looking for Office sites, they're easy to find. If you're looking for things beyond the office, check out the visit any pa website and naturally at the visit any pa.org site they also have a Scranton self guided walking tour of the office site so naturally I was going to end with that because I'm sure a lot of you associate that to like I do. And I'll be back in the next episode with another stop from that 2100-mile road trip from 2019. It'll be the capital city of Harrisburg Pennsylvania.

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This Week In History

This weekend history goes back to one of the most infamous crimes in American history. 52 years ago this week, August 9 1969. Members of Charles Manson's cult killed five people in Roman Polanski's Beverly Hills, California home, including Polanski's pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, less than 48 hours later, the same group would kill again, murdering supermarket execs Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in their home. The savage crimes shocked the nation and turned Charles Manson into a criminal icon. Manson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1934. To an unwed, 16-year-old mother. He spent much of his childhood in juvenile reformatories and early adulthood in prison. After his latest release from prison in 1967, Manson moved to California. And using the power of His magnetism and manipulation, he formed this family of young hippies, mostly women, disillusioned young adults. He even formed a friendship with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. He preached his own religious views that he had studied religion in prison, specifically how to use religion to manipulate people. He told his family that a race war was going to be coming between black people and white people, and he was going to help spark the flames. Sadly, Roman Polanski's house, that was not the intended target. While the house was but Polanski wasn't the person that used to live there was a producer and Manson had tried to get a recording deal from the producer because he was an aspiring musician. Polanski, who was a famed director of films like Rosemary's Baby Chinatown, and the pianist was out of town at the time of the murders. But his pregnant wife and her friends were there. Sharon Tate and her friends, including coffee heiress Abigail Folger, were shot or stabbed to death. And even though Charles Manson was not in the home, and he did not participate in those murders, or the LaBianca murders, he was tried and sentenced, because the grounds that he had influenced his followers to do it as a cult leader, he had actually eluded capture, he was out in Death Valley in the desert at the spawn ranch, and then later on at the Barker ranch. He was actually ratted out because of one of his followers, who was already in jail, started bragging about what had happened. Manson's trial became a spectacle with his followers outside singing, and they had the x's carved in their foreheads, and he was just insane with his bizarre and sometimes violent behavior. In 1971, he was convicted and given the death penalty. However, the sentence became life when California Supreme Court overturned the death penalty in 1972. Manson was up for parole many times, but he usually use these parole hearings to just spout gibberish he never had a real chance of getting out of jail, and he died in prison in 2017. But 52 years ago, this week, the infamous gruesome ghastly Manson Family murders took place in Beverly Hills, California, will try to lighten the mood with a new time capsule. We're going back 73 years August 14 1948. Why did I choose this date, because it was the oldest possible Nielsen television ratings chart that I could find. And on that chart, the number one TV show was toast of the town. You may not be familiar with the title toast of the town, but you might be more familiar with the name that it was changed to, which was the Ed Sullivan Show. The show was already referred to as The Ed Sullivan Show before it changed his name in 1955. It ran from 1948 to 1971, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential shows in television history, not just for variety and talk but in general. Think of all of the musical acts that had these huge debuts. I mean, the Beatles' debut is considered one of the biggest moments in TV history, and it was on The Ed Sullivan Show. The number one song was you call everybody darlin by Al trace and his orchestra. The song itself was re-recorded many times. And interestingly, several of those actually made the charts in the same year. So just imagine someone recording a hit song and then other bands doing the same song and putting it out in the same year and they all charted. It was definitely the biggest hit of Al Trace's career who had become a bigger star in the big band era the decade before. The number one movie was Key Largo starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and Lauren Bacall. It made $4.4 million on a budget of 1.8 million. It was a film noir crime drama, and the fourth pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The film was based on a play by Maxwell Andersen in 1939 of the same name. And if you were looking to buy a car in 1948, the most popular vehicle was the Plymouth club coupe. And you could get a brand new one for $2,495. Or about $28,000. when adjusted for inflation, and go and look it up, it's a beautiful car. That's one of those. It's a classic when you see it, it just screams classic car. And that'll do it for this week in history. That will do it for another time capsule. We're gonna jump into now, the latest top five, we'll see how much feedback I get on this one after last week's top five concerts I've been to. This week, I'm going to double down for some fun controversy with my top five favorite Boston athletes of my lifetime. So let's get into that

Top 5 Favorite Boston Athletes of My Lifetime

I began watching sports in 1985. And obviously, growing up on Cape Cod, I am totally into Boston, Boston is my home even though I live over an hour away from it. So when choosing my top five favorite athletes of my lifetime, I started in 1985 and moved up to now. So depending on your age, your list is going to be totally different. I plan on this being maybe the list that has the most disagreements because people of different ages are going to tend to gravitate towards their specialty in their childhood, to who they think was the best ever, or at least of their lifetime. It's like I'm trying to soften the blow before I give my countdown. Like I'm saying Don't Don't get mad. These are my picks, but we'll see. You'll probably agree with most. But hey, you can always shoot me a message and let me know what you think. So we'll just jump right in with the honorable mentions. I had so many people on this list that it was so tough to narrow it down to five. So I have honorable mentions including David Ortiz. Big Papi. Now, remember, these are favorites, not the best as far as players go. Honorable Mention number two is cam Neely of the Bruins. Another honorable mention is Bruins legend Ray Borque. And the fourth honorable mention which will probably get me the most heat is Tom Brady. Yes, he's not on my top five favorites of my lifetime. Now, remember, it's favorites. I'll never deny that Tom Brady is the best player in NFL history. He's got seven Super Bowl rings now with two different teams. So I'm not denying that he's the best ever at what he does. But as far as favorites, I grew up in the 80s. So we'll see about that as far as my list. top five favorite Boston athletes of my lifetime from 1985 to Now, number one from the New England Patriots, Andre Tippett, this one if you're younger, you may have no clue who he was. But when I was growing up first watching the Patriots when they were mediocre at best, really in the mid to late 80s. Yeah, they went to the Super Bowl in 85. But for the most part, they were like a middle-of-the-road team at best and usually way worse. Andre Tippett was this killer on defense, I thought he was like the Patriots' version of Lawrence Taylor. He played for the Patriots from 1982 to 1993. And ended his career with exactly 100 sacks, six-three 245 Time Pro Bowler, and I loved watching him play especially when I got to see him in person and meet him and get his autograph. So maybe I'm biased. Number two from the Boston Red Sox, Roger Clemens, and this, he may not have aged well with steroid controversies, especially after he left the Red Sox in 96. But for people of my age and maybe a little older, there's no denying how good the rocket was when he was on his game. His 20-strikeout game against Seattle in 86. He won the Cy Young Award three times with the Red Sox, and was American League MVP in 1986. That was the year he went 24 and four and helped lead the Red Sox into the World Series. But we won't talk about the World Series itself. That'll be for another day. He played for the Red Sox from 1984 to 1996 and won 192 games with them, which is tied for the most ever. Number three from the New England Patriots. Rodney Harrison. Oh, I loved Rodney Harrison. He was one of my favorite players before he came to the Patriots when he was with the San Diego Chargers. He was just one of those safeties that would just crush receivers coming across the middle. And I was actually I was so thrilled that he came to the patriots to get paired with lawyer Malloy, who I also loved and then they got rid of Malloy, you know, what are you going to do? There's only room I guess for one killer free safety like Rodney Harrison. He played for the Patriots from 2003 to 2008 and won two Super Bowls with them. He was with San Diego much longer from 94 to 2002. He ended his career with 34, interceptions and 30 sacks. So he was pretty versatile. And he was definitely one of my favorite patriots ever. Number four from the Boston Red Sox, Pedro Martinez. So I guess this goes back to my little league talk on the podcast in Episode 18, where I talked about my time playing baseball. And I said I always wanted to be a pitcher. I just sucked at it. So it's interesting that in my top five, there are two red sox pitchers. Pedro Martinez was smaller and had a very slight frame, but he dominated in the era of steroids. When you had McGwire and Sosa and bonds. You had Pedro and totally won three Cy Young awards, was an eight-time all-star and was also on the old four Red Sox that broke the curse and won the World Series. He won 219 games total and had more than 3100 strikeouts. And if you want a slice of his dominance, go check out his performance in the 1999 All Star game in Boston. And number five on my countdown of my favorite Boston athletes of my lifetime from the Boston Celtics, Larry Bird, I loved Larry Bird's style. I tried to model my shot after him because it was harder to mimic the more athletic players. I couldn't jump like Jordan are Dominique Wilkins. And I wasn't really tall like Kareem, or Olajuwon or Patrick Ewing. But Larry Bird, he was skilled, but he didn't have as many athletic gifts. He just had that sense of how to play. He played from 1979 to 1992. All those last couple years were really marred with back injuries. But before then he was dominant. He was a 12-time All-Star Three-time MVP three-time winner of the NBA Finals. He was the Celtics of the 80s and I felt there was no way I could do a top five Boston athletes my favorites in my lifetime without Larry Bird. So that'll conclude that one, what do you think? What did you think of my top five? Andre Tippett, Roger Clemens, Rodney Harrison, Pedro Martinez, Larry Bird. Those are my favorites. Do you agree? I'm sure most of you don't. That's fine. Do you think some of my honorable mentions should have been in there, David Ortiz, Cam Neely, Tom Brady Ray bore, everyone's list will be different. I look forward to yours and your praise or your criticism. But I'll be back next week with another top five.

Back In the Day: Collecting Baseball Cards

One of my favorite pastimes growing up, especially in the 80s in the early 90s was getting an allowance or making money from the first job I had when I was 12. And taking that money, getting on my bike and riding down the street jarred corner store and buying some packs of baseball cards. From the moment I got into sports in 1985, the idea of collecting baseball cards was just such an appealing hobby. I didn't know back then the value of them. Now granted, that's changed now 30-something years later. But baseball card collecting was huge. When I was growing up. I don't know if it's as big now, I think especially because it's so watered down, where you've got so many different types of cards, and they try to get them more and more intricate and impressive. You've got chrome cards and thicker cards that have pieces of Jersey in them. Back when I was growing up. They were just basic. And that's the way it was from all the way back at the turn of the 20th century when they first started coming out. Baseball cards in general got started back in the 1870s and 80s. They were in packs of cigarettes basically to help so that the package wouldn't get crushed. And some of those cards, they go up for auction now for millions, nothing I have whatever approach that. But I remember my uncle Bob was the one that had the best collection when I was growing up. He kind of helped me get into it. He would show me his cards from the early to mid-1960s. And the funny thing is, that was from the generation where they would put the cards onto the spokes of the bike, and it would make a noise as they flipped around the spokes. And he even had cards that he would autograph himself. And these were cards of famous players that were basically ruined by him, signing them with his own name. I think I learned from his mistakes because I never autographed any of my own cards. So I would go on my own or with friends down to the store and buy a pack or two of baseball cards. Topps were the main brand and I think they're still around 25 cents 35 cents for a pack of five or six cards, and you get a stick of gum in there that was like chewing on a piece of frozen soap. It was awful. I would always just throw it out. I think I tried it once and it just snapped. Because gums not supposed to snap it should like softly fold not become like a shank and your cheek. And opening a pack of baseball cards was always exciting because you knew the players you wanted. And you scroll through them. And I kept basically all of them. I probably still have a box of just random cards in my mother's basement. I remember for my birthday in 1985, so would have been my eighth birthday. The main present I wanted was the 1985 Topps baseball set. And my mother and stepfather got it for me. I don't remember how much it was. But it was expensive. And I think the sad irony is that my mother paid more for it than it's worth. Now. The set came in a rectangular box of 792 cards. The main ones were rookie cards of Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens and Kirby Puckett. I just quickly went on Amazon and I could find a new set for $125. So I don't know where that ranks as far as what my mother paid for him, but that's kind of what it's going for. And I still have it in its box mint condition. But the thing is, McGwire with the steroids, Clemens with the steroids accusations that just didn't age well. As the years went on to the later 80s. They came out with upper deck cards that were seen as the highest quality. It had a little baseball diamond in the corner. I remember that being the card set that I wanted badly. The 89 upper deck cards because it had Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie card in it, and I would buy packs and I could never get it. And the irony is I just was looking it up and it goes for as high as $1,500. So imagine if I could have gotten that card. Sadly, I spent a lot of money on Upper Deck, Fleer, and Donruss, and I would get a lot of cards that were just crap. You would get the books, the magazines, baseball card price guides, and they would have these rated rookies, the guys that were seemed like they were going to be the big stars, so you'd kind of rush out to get their cards to be ahead of the curve. Ken Griffey Jr. was one that actually succeeded. Frank Thomas was one that actually succeeded. But for every one of those Griffey or a Frank Thomas, you had guys like Kevin Moss from the Yankees, or Phil Plantier, from the Red Sox that were seen as they were going to be big stars and they were huge busts. So you go and buy their rookie cards and they will immediately go down in value. It's like driving a new car off the lot. It loses half its value as soon as you get out. That was one of my cards. I ended up getting baseball card books with sleeves that you could put the cards into try to keep the mint condition and sadly trying to get them in the sleeve. Sometimes it would bend a corner so it immediately wasn't meant anymore. I actually have several smaller books. And these are interesting because one of the books is filled with just Ken Griffey Jr. Cards. It's probably worth a good amount. But the thing is, it doesn't have his rookie, like that upper deck one. I think I have his other ones that aren't worth as much but the upper deck one was the king growing up then you knew the cards to look for Griffey was one that would be valuable. Michael Jordan was the other one. I'm looking at some of his cards. Now for sale online. I keep going back and forth as I record this, and I'm finding that I have multiples of that. They're going for like $20, which that's fine. But his rookie card, it's like $20,000. And much like Griffey, I don't have it. I have a second-year card though. graded. Graded means like a perfect 10 Basically, or almost a 10 card. It's worth close to $2,000. I don't know what my condition is. I know I put it in a nice case to keep it safe, but I have no intention of selling it. I have so few cards I think that are worth a lot that it would be almost pointless. Like why would I sell them when I have so many that are worthless. I just throw them out. As it got later into the 90s. In high school, I kind of fell out of collecting cards. Not because I didn't like it but mainly because they flooded the market. When I was a kid it was tops. Then it was tops and Fleer and Donruss then the added upper deck than this started adding offshoots of them that were more expensive and more exclusive. And it got to a point where you go into a baseball card store, and it was five bucks for a pack of five. And it's like, it's not as much fun. That's where you get into, it's like lottery ticket areas, where it's like you buy scratch tickets and just lose. I could spend five bucks on a packet cards and get five losers. And it's like, Why did I bother? So that's kind of what killed it for me was it watered it down? That being said, doing this segment for the podcast has actually got me interested in going back through my cards, and seeing if I have any that are worth anything. So maybe something good did come from it. And don't worry coming up in a future podcast. I'm going to do a whole segment back in the day about the Garbage Pail Kids cards, because I collected those just as much, and I definitely want to talk about them. But I wanted to stick to mainly baseball cards, sports cards. Did any of you out there collect baseball cards or any kind of sports cards? And who were your favorite players are the ones that you were hoping to get? You heard mine I mean, Ken Griffey, Jr, Michael Jordan, in football, it was Barry Sanders. In hockey. It was Pavel Bure, who I really liked and his cards were pretty valuable. But then there were always the ones that are out of reach anything with Jordan specialized were worth a ton. Anything with Wayne Gretzky was always worth a ton. Did any of you save any unopened packs, that's another big thing you see on eBay, people went and bought cards and just never open them, it makes them more valuable because there's the unknown factor. There's a 1989 pack of Upper Deck baseball cards. And I'm seeing them going for sale for $35 or more for a pack, which I guess isn't too bad. But it's the idea that you could get the Griffey card in there that's worth over $1,000. I never did that. I bought baseball cards to open them and to put them in my books. But like I said, for every Michael Jordan second-year card that's worth a lot. There's so many more Kevin moss and Phil Plantier. And Brian Taylor, or Ryan leaf, ones, that you get a ton of them, and they don't amount to much. But that's the risk. And it was worth it. I really had fun collecting baseball cards as a kid. No doubt.

Closing

That's gonna do it for episode 32 of the in my footsteps podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for sticking with me through all these episodes, I've tried my best to make them the best they can be with stuff for everyone in there. And that's the whole point the audience is growing, I get a lot of positive feedback. I've got five five-star reviews on Apple podcasts, which really makes me feel good. People sharing this and rating it high. That's as good as it can get. Yeah, I talk about the buy me a coffee donations. If you find me on there, and in my footsteps podcast, you can donate and I use that for advertising for the podcast. But what's more important is sharing it. Because there's less of a commitment or pressure. I think people hear me mention donations. And it's immediately like, oh, no, I just want to listen, I don't want to give money, which is the same with me. I listen to a lot of podcasts. And when they talk donations, I'm like, I'll give you the lessons and I'll share it. And that's what I'd rather you do. As I said, Listen to the live streams without a map. Those are Fridays at 8pm on Instagram. Afterward, they go up on IGTV and YouTube. I put timestamps in there. So you can flip around and see what I talk about. Because it gets pretty random. And if you're seeing a 45-minute live stream, and you don't know what's coming, it might be like, I don't want to listen to this. But if you see the timestamps where I mentioned funny things and foolish things, it at least entices you to check it out a little more. Find me on Instagram, otherwise, find me on Twitter. I'm always promoting and marketing the podcast and sharing just random fun stuff. Subscribe to my YouTube channel. I post the live streams up there. Like I said, I'm trying to do 4k New England videos. It's tough with summer with so many people around you can't get off the cape like on a Sunday, which is really my low-key day of the week. If I want to go off Cape and go take some photos and videos. It's like forget it. Our traffic is backed up to get off Cape, sometimes 1012 miles. It's like it's not even worth it. After summer. I promise after summer when the weather is still good. I'll be able to do more. Look for all six of my books on Amazon. You can go to Schiffer Publishing, you can go to Arcadia Publishing. If you're on Cape Cod, it's in any of the local bookstores. I'm finally back to doing actual in person live events and actually when this podcast goes live, I'll be doing an event tonight at the Eldridge Public Library in Chatham. So if you're listening to this, on Thursday it goes live, then you can come to see me. But otherwise, it's this is already obsolete. I definitely have to say I'm at the point where I'm not that I want summer to end. But the cape is so congested. And it seems like it's worse this year, because so few people traveled last year, that it's like everyone and plus one have come down here. So it's so crowded that I cannot wait for Labor Day to pass, and for things to quiet down. So the people that live here year-round can actually get back out and enjoy what makes Cape Cod so great. And if you are listening to this, and you're a tourist on Cape Cod, don't think that I'm saying that I want you all to leave. It's just there's only so much room. And it comes to the point now where there's GPS, so we have fewer and fewer secret locations. I used to thrive on having these places that no one knew about that I could go hide at. But now with GPS and Google Maps, you can just scroll around the Cape and find a spot and say, Oh, that looks good. And you go there. But whoever you are, and the cape, you know, be kind to everyone. There have been labor shortages. So restaurants are shorthand that I worked in the restaurant industry for so long. So just be kind, it doesn't cost you any more to be nice to people, because you never know what someone else is going through, put yourself in their shoes. That's what I try to do. It's called being empathetic. And it just makes the world a little bit easier when there's crap that goes on a lot to just be nice. But above all else, put your own mental health first, take care of yourself, try to be the best version of you make yourself that I'm doing that every day, just trying to be better than I was the day before. going easy on myself on the days that I don't want to go to the gym or I don't want to run or I don't want to write. Nobody is perfect 100% of the time. So please go easy on yourself. Love yourself, and take care of yourself. And I hope that for at least an hour a week or maybe two hours a week. If you listen to the live stream, I give you a little distraction. If I do if this brings you happiness, that is such a huge compliment and I thank you all for listening. Tune in next week for episode 33. We're going to continue my 2019 road trip like I said before with a stop in the capital city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I'm going to give you some more creepy scary New England lore with the story of the Dummerston Vermont vine cemetery. If you want to look it up and get spoilers, you may or you can wait for me to tell you about it. It's pretty creepy and wild. We're gonna go back in the day to the early days of cable TV, and specifically my memories of cable and Cape Cod Cable Vision. So that'll be fun. We'll have another top five lists this will be the top five obsolete technology of my lifetime things that I grew up with that I can't believe are now gone that I never thought would be gone. There'll be another this week in history and Time Capsule centered around the king himself, Elvis Presley, and so much more coming up next week on episode 33. But remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can because you just never know. I thank you all again for listening to my podcast. And I will talk to you all again soon.